If you've seen this week's litter announcement, you've already met our newest crew — and you've probably also seen the photograph that goes with it: eight tiny English Springer Spaniel puppies piled into an antique Winchester shotgun-cartridge box, with the sun setting behind a field of prairie grasses. It's the kind of picture that practically introduces itself. But it does raise a few good questions, and we wanted to answer them properly, because the answers go to the heart of what we're trying to do at Three Doves.

So let's talk about three things: why this is the "Game On" litter, why these puppies have the names they have, and — for everyone who has politely asked — exactly how we made that photo.

Why "Game On"

At Three Doves we give each litter a theme, and the puppies' litter names all come out of that theme. We pick the theme months before the litter is born, usually while we're planning the breeding — because the theme is supposed to say something true about the dogs we hope these puppies will grow into.

For this litter, we landed on Game On, because nothing else quite captures the working versatility of an English Springer Spaniel.

Springers, when they come from the right lines and are raised with intention, are remarkable generalists. They hunt. They dock dive. They compete in conformation. They earn rally and obedience titles. They run agility. They flush birds, retrieve from water, and then come home and curl up on the couch and ask you what's for dinner. There is no one "thing" a Springer is built to do. The breed is built to turn it on, turn it off, and do whatever the day is asking.

That is certainly the story of the dogs in this litter's pedigree. BlazE, the sire, is an AKC Champion in the conformation ring, an accomplished hunter, and an active AKC Therapy Dog Excellent — perhaps the perfect proof of concept. He can switch on hard enough to compete and to work the field, and he can switch off enough to walk a hospital hallway and lean gently against a patient who needs him. That ability to dial up and dial back, on demand, is exactly what we mean by "game on." Etta brings her own version of the same versatility, and the dogs further back in both pedigrees did many things, in many places, with many handlers.

So "Game On" felt like the right name for this group of puppies. We're hoping each one will, in their own way, live up to it.

 

 

We announce each litter's theme *before* the puppies arrive — usually right after the pregnancy ultrasound. We do it that way because the theme is meant to set the tone of the eight-week journey for the families who will be joining us on it, and because by the time the puppies are on the ground we are too busy doing tail docks and weight checks to be designing graphics.

A short look back — past Three Doves themes

This is something of a Three Doves tradition. Every litter we've raised has had its own theme, chosen to celebrate something about the parents, the season, or what we hope the puppies will become.

 

 

The Seedling Litter (June 2021) was Buttercup (Am GCH CH / Canadian CH Maxwell's Build Me Up Buttercup) bred to Lily Belle of Collverhaus. With a sire named Buttercup and a dam named Lily, the theme practically wrote itself — the puppies were our "seedlings," each one named after a flower or a growing thing.

 

 

The Apple Dumpling Gang (October 2025), BlazE bred to Aster, was born on Halloween and took its theme from the autumn season and from the 1975 Disney film of the same name. Those puppies all carried names that nodded to that mischievous, friendly spirit. (Several of those families are still in our extended Three Doves circle, which we love.)

And now, the Game On Litter — BlazE bred to Etta, born May 26, 2026 — picks up the thread.

About these names — and a quick word on registered names vs. call names

You'll see us refer to the puppies as Purdey, Diver, Domino, Trap, Tracker, Hunter, Wildcard, and Skeet, each wearing a coordinated collar color. Let us be clear up front:

These are not the puppies' permanent names. They are litter names — a working system we use to keep each puppy organized while they're with us.

Why have them at all? Because at any given moment we are weighing eight tiny puppies, dosing them, watching nursing behavior, performing Early Neurological Stimulation, recording temperament test results, and keeping everyone who handles the litter on the same page about who is who. Calling each puppy by a name and a collar color is far more reliable than "the big black-and-white one" or "second-from-the-left." It also turns the eight-week journey into a story the families who are following along can follow — instead of a spreadsheet.

Some new owners do keep the litter name in some form — as part of the AKC registered name, or even as the call name. Most people pick something of their own. Either is wonderful, and we're happy either way.

A quick distinction that comes up with first-time buyers all the time:

Your puppy's registered name is the formal name on the AKC papers — what shows up on a championship ribbon if the dog ever earns one. Your puppy's call name is what you actually say at the back door when it's time to come inside.

At Three Doves we ask that the registered name begin with Three Doves, followed by something that fits the litter theme. For the Game On litter, that means a registered name shaped like "Three Doves [something sporting or game-themed]" — for example, Three Doves Match Point, Three Doves Wild Card, Three Doves Hat Trick, Three Doves Game Plan, Three Doves Sudden Death, Three Doves Top of the Order. We work with each family one-on-one on a name they love. The call name — the everyday name — is entirely your choice and has nothing to do with the registered name.

 

 

We've put together a one-page roster (above) with each puppy's litter name, collar color, sex, coat, birth time, and birth weight. We look at one almost exactly like this all day; we hope it's useful for families and curious followers too.

The Winchester Ammo Box — and a behind-the-scenes confession

That photograph at the top of the post deserves its own moment. The box is a real antique (replica) Winchester shotgun-cartridge crate — "Small Arms Ammunition · Shot Gun Cartridges · Manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. · New Haven, Conn., U.S.A." — and it tied the whole Game On theme together so neatly that we couldn't resist using it. If you'd like one of your own (it makes a beautiful living-room piece even without a litter inside it), here's where we found ours: https://amzn.to/4edh7L4.

Disclosure: This is an Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate, Three Doves may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases — at no additional cost to you. We only link to things we have actually bought and used ourselves.

Now — the confession.

More than one viewer politely asked us if the picture was AI-generated. It is not. But the reason people ask is worth answering, because it gets at something we feel strongly about.

The image is a real photograph of real puppies in a real Winchester ammo box. What you're seeing as "background" is a separate, real photograph — a beautiful golden-hour image of prairie grasses from Adobe Stock. We combined the two photographs using standard photo-editing tools: the same green-screen and compositing techniques that newspapers, yearbook photographers, and even your iPhone's portrait-mode have used for decades.

Here is the original photograph, shot in our home against a green screen:

 

 

And here is the background photograph we used, licensed from Adobe Stock:

 

 

Putting those two photographs together — pulling the puppies and the box off the green screen and dropping them onto the field of grass — is a five-minute job in any modern photo editor (Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Pixelmator, even the newer iPhones can do a respectable version). What you end up with is the composite image at the top of this post.

This isn't the first time we've done it, either. The Apple Dumpling Gang's two-weeks-old portrait was shot the same way — the puppies in a real little wooden bed, photographed against a green screen, with a white-plank background dropped in afterward:

 

 

We're explaining all of this because we think breeders should be transparent. We do not use generative-AI images to represent our dogs or our litters. The puppies on our website, on our Facebook page, and in our marketing are photographs of the actual puppies we are placing in homes. The Winchester box, the grasses, the puppies, the sunset — every element you see is a real photograph; we just shot them in different places and put them together.

If you are trying to evaluate a breeder online, here is a tip we'd offer in any context: ask. Reputable breeders are happy to show you behind-the-scenes images, a quick video call with the litter, or any other proof that the puppies in the marketing photos are the same puppies you'd be bringing home. We are always happy to share.

One last thought

Naming, themes, photographs, blog posts — none of it is fluff. It's how we celebrate each litter and tell the story of the puppies we're raising. We hope it gives you a small sense of how much love and intention goes into the eight weeks each Three Doves puppy spends with us before going home.

If you have questions about a specific puppy, the Game On litter as a whole, or our program in general, we would love to talk — contact details below.

— Albert & Terra